Al Jazeera Media Network has strongly condemned the killing of five of its journalists in an Israeli airstrike near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, calling it a “targeted assassination” and one of the deadliest single attacks on media personnel since the war began.
The journalists correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa were sheltering inside a tent marked for media professionals near the hospital’s main gate when the strike occurred on August 10. A total of seven people were killed in the attack.
“This is yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom,” Al Jazeera said in a statement, accusing Israeli forces of deliberately targeting the media to suppress coverage from inside Gaza.
Following the strike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged targeting Anas al-Sharif, claiming in a Telegram post that he was “the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas.”
The IDF did not reference the other four journalists killed.
Al Jazeera refuted the IDF’s claim, stating that al-Sharif was a credentialed journalist who had long reported from Gaza and was “the only voice still documenting life under siege.”
Mohamed Moawad, Al Jazeera’s managing editor, told the BBC that the journalists were not embedded with militants and were clearly operating from a marked press area.
“They were targeted in their tent,” Moawad said.
“This is an effort to silence reporting from inside Gaza something I have not seen in modern history.”
Throughout the nearly two-year conflict, Al Jazeera has maintained coverage from within Gaza, even as international media have largely been barred from entering.
Local journalists have played a vital role in documenting conditions on the ground.
In a separate statement, the network described the five journalists as “among the last remaining voices from within Gaza,” providing unfiltered, first-hand coverage of the humanitarian crisis.
It held the Israeli government fully responsible for the deaths and called for international intervention to protect journalists and hold perpetrators accountable.
“These were deliberate assassinations, not casualties of war,” the statement said. “Anas and his colleagues died doing what so few dared telling the world the truth.”
Press freedom organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, have called for independent investigations into the incident amid growing concern over the escalating number of journalist casualties in the conflict.
Since the outbreak of war in October 2023, dozens of Palestinian journalists have reportedly been killed in Israeli strikes.
While Israel maintains it targets Hamas militants and infrastructure, human rights groups have warned that the distinction between combatants and civilians including journalists is increasingly being ignored, potentially violating international law.
Despite the growing risks and loss of personnel, Al Jazeera has vowed to continue its reporting from Gaza.
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